After Rome 500-700

The Germanic Barbarians

• Barbarian warlords and their families who assimilated into Roman culture became the "nobles" or aristocrats
• Germanic tribes who ruled former Roman lands sought to conquer and assimilate other barbarian peoples who lived beyond the frontiers and were pagans
• The Angles and Saxons invaded great Britain and assimilated the native Britons
• Most of the Angelo-Saxons were converted to Christianity in the 7th century
• The most powerful Germanic tribe was the Franks
• But the real power lay with the "mayors of the palace" who were royal officials and nobles themselves

From the "Eastern Empire" to "Byzantine"

• The eastern Roman Empire continued on while the west was now divided up by the barbarians
• When the emperor Justinian came to power in 527, he decided to reunite the entire Roman Empire by reconquering the western tribes
• He succeeded for a time, but the land he re-took was soon conquered by new barbarians and a massive plaque depopulated most of the west

Christian Empire

• Greek Byzantine emperors saw themselves as Roman emperors and the heads of the Christian Church
• Byzantines preserved Greco-Roman art, architecture, philosophy and writing despite much of if being non-Christian
• Justinian built the massive domed "Hagia Sophia ("Holy Wisdom") in Constantinople, considered to be the most glorious church on earth at the time